US DOE to Subject Matter Experts: Become a BETO Reviewer
In Washington, the U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) is expanding its roster of subject matter experts to review research funding applications.
BETO’s Scale-Up and Conversion Funding Opportunity Announcement (More on that here) is currently accepting applications in the areas of:
– Bioenergy technology scale-up
– Clean cellulosic sugar production
– Bioprocess separations
– Wood heater efficiencies
– Renewable natural gas.
To apply to become a BETO reviewer for the Scale-Up and Conversion FOA, follow the steps on the EERE Funding Opportunity Exchange and send your resume to [email protected].
BETO will continue to recruit reviewers in the future; however, to be eligible to review applications for the Scale-Up and Conversion FOA, you must submit your resume at the above email address by May 21, 2021. “We are striving to expand our reviewer pool to broaden participation and to create a more inclusive and equitable review process,” the DOE said in s atatement.
The FOA background
Building a clean and equitable energy economy and addressing the climate crisis is a top priority of the Biden Administration. This FOA will advance the Biden Administration’s goals to achieve carbon pollution-free electricity sector by 2035 and to “deliver an equitable, clean energy future, and put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050.“[1] The Department of Energy (DOE) is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering, catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D), and ensuring environmental justice and inclusion of underserved communities.
In support of these Administration priorities, the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) is focused on developing technologies that convert domestic biomass and other waste resources (e.g., municipal solid waste, biosolids) into low-carbon biofuels and bioproducts. These bioenergy technologies can enable a transition to a clean energy economy, create high-quality jobs, support rural economies, and spur innovation in renewable energy and chemicals production – the bioeconomy. The activities funded through this opportunity will mobilize public clean energy investment in the biofuels, chemical and agricultural industries, accelerate the deployment of bioenergy technologies, and support achieving economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050.
This FOA supports high-impact technology RDD&D to accelerate the bioeconomy and, in particular, the production of low-carbon fuels for the aviation industry. BETO is focusing on applied RDD&D to improve the performance and reduce cost of biofuel production technologies and scale-up production systems in partnership with industry. By reducing cost and technical risk, BETO can help pave the way for industry to deploy commercial-scale integrated biorefineries and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from hard to decarbonize sectors, such as aviation. The Program is focused on developing and demonstrating technologies that are capable of producing low-carbon drop-in biofuels at $2.50 per gallon gasoline equivalent (GGE) by 2030, as well as associated renewable chemical co-products to achieve this target.[2] BETO is focused on biofuel production pathways that can deliver at least 70% lower lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than petroleum.
The research and development (R&D) activities to be funded under this FOA will support the government-wide approach to the climate crisis by driving the innovation that can lead to the deployment of clean energy technologies, which are critical for climate protection. Specifically, this FOA will support high-impact RDD&D focusing on the production of low-GHG fuels for the aviation industry, as well as the long-haul trucking and marine industries by soliciting proposals to scale-up technologies; cost effectively produce biomass derived sugars as an intermediate for the production of biofuels and bioproducts; and support cost effective separation technologies. In addition, the FOA will support increasing the efficiency of residential wood heaters and the production of renewable natural gas.
